ASE 2025 Annual Conference: Full Schedule

The ASE is delighted to be hosting its Annual Conference, generously sponsored by AQA, at the University of Nottingham from 9th to 11th January 2025. International sessions are incorporated throughout the event for this year and we will have a great exhibition with lots of exclusive Conference offers. Post-16 focus-day and for those involved in leading and delivering professional development, the Teacher Developers’ Group programme is Thursday. Friday is the dedicated Technicians day and Early Career Teacher day. Sessions for both Primary and 11-19 are threaded throughout all 3 days with a focus on Research on Saturday.
Book your tickets now at https://ase2025AnnConf.eventbrite.co.uk - and remember, if you are an ASE member you will benefit from hugely discounted prices! Check out our membership here - it’s free for Early Career Teachers and only £25 for Technicians!

09:45 GMT

Enabling change through the assessment of thinking scientifically

Thursday January 9, 2025 09:45 - 10:35 GMT

Pope A17

In an era of diminishing teacher autonomy (OECD 2016; Worth and Van den Brande 2020), many teachers find they are unable to enact change in their practice. In our presentation, we will model some professional learning experiences that we believe can empower teachers to refine their practice.

Our session has two aims. There is a growing body of professional resources that seeks to support children to think scientifically. Firstly, we will model how to introduce a professional resource through an analysis of children's work as illustrations of aspects of Dr. Murphy's Thinking Scientifically Matrix. This matrix articulates a progression in children's thinking in primary science.
Secondly, building on Dr. Serret’s research expertise in enabling pedagogical transformation, we will share some effective approaches that help to communicate evidence-informed pedagogy across a community of practitioners.

Through this, our presentation considers how to introduce pedagogical initiatives (e.g. A Thinking Scientifically Matrix) that allows teachers to integrate this within their existing practice but also encourages them to make small, significant shifts in how they assess, teach and plan in primary science.

In this session you will:
•Have the opportunity to engage in first-hand experiences of applying a pedagogical tool (thinking scientifically matrix) to children’s work.
•Identify how teachers might adapt their planning and teaching when integrating new pedagogy within their existing practice.
•Think about the potential that different professional learning experiences can offer in enabling teachers to enact change in their practice.

Speakers

Alison Murphy

Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University

Natasha Serret

Senior Lecturer in Education, Nottingham Trent University

Dr. Natasha Serret BA (Hons) MA PGCE SFHEAPrimary BA Joint Course LeaderSenior Lecturer in EducationNottingham Trent UniversityNottingham Institute of Education

Thursday January 9, 2025 09:45 - 10:35 GMT
Pope A17

Primary

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type Global, Industry, Teacher Developers, 5 to 7, 7 to 11, ITEs, Advisors/Consultants, Selected by Teacher Developers' Group

14:15 GMT

Formative Assessment Probes - Building Conceptual Understanding in KS3

Thursday January 9, 2025 14:15 - 15:05 GMT

Pope A17

This workshop will share practical ideas about how, when starting a new topic, teachers can quickly and easily find out what their students already know and what misconceptions they may hold. It will then consider what can be done with these insights and how subsequent progress can be demonstrated. This session has links to the book Understanding Children's Ideas in Science sold by ASE/Millgate House

Speakers

Page Keeley

Retiring President, NSELA

Page Keeley is an American science education consultant and author of over 20 books linking research to practice, including several award-winning books in the Uncovering Student Ideas in Science series. She works with school districts, universities, and organizations throughout the... Read More →

Ed Walsh

Science Education Consultant, Ed Walsh Consulting

An author and CPD presenter, I was a teacher for 20 years, 12 of them as team leader. I then worked as a consultant, supporting teachers and science teams, training teachers and developing curriculum materials. I am now a Series Editor for Collins, CPD Trainer for AQA and Development... Read More →

Thursday January 9, 2025 14:15 - 15:05 GMT
Pope A17

11-19

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type ECTs, Teacher Developers, Global, 11-14, 14-16

08:45 GMT

Good Practical Science: using formative assessment techniques to help students prepare for exams

Friday January 10, 2025 08:45 - 09:35 GMT

Pope LT C17

Imagine telling your students that their upcoming science mock exam is the most important exam of their life. Imagine the pressure this puts them under. Imagine the enormous quantity of information that they feel they need to ‘know’ for their exam. Imagine thinking that some revision lessons on ‘difficult topics’, and some general advice on revision will help.

Imagine doing this with the majority of students every year. Without question.

Imagine if you did question whether there was a ‘different way’. For many years, like most other science teachers, I had assumed that there was no ‘other’ way. Then I asked the question, and started on a journey, during which I used all my knowledge of formative assessment, built up since my early involvement with the King’s College team and the ‘Inside The Black Box’ project, to develop new formative methods for preparing my students for their science examinations. This journey resulted in the total breakdown of the differentiation between preparation for summative assessments, such as mock exams, and the formative assessment techniques that my students were used to using in their lessons.

Imagine the end result of the journey being a totally different, more formative, approach to both preparation for exams, and of the revision done, by students.

Imagine discovering that this benefitted every students’, confidence with their science exams, regardless of their abilities and past attainment. Imagine that this also resulted in far better examination results across the board.

Imagine that nothing on my journey involved any more work for the students, nor for the teacher.

Imagine if you could get the benefits of the first part of my journey in a single session at this year’s ASE conference.

Imagine a totally new approach to linking formative and summative assessment to help students prepare for their science exams.

Speakers

Ed Walsh

Science Education Consultant, Ed Walsh Consulting

Marianne Cutler

Director, Policy and Curriculum Innovation, ASE

Marianne has overall responsibility for curriculum support and projects at the ASE. She works closely with ASE committees and manages professional development projects.

Friday January 10, 2025 08:45 - 09:35 GMT
Pope LT C17

11-19

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type 14-16, 11-14, Teacher Developers, ECTs

08:45 GMT

Misconceptions in exams - key lessons from the 2024 summer series

Friday January 10, 2025 08:45 - 09:35 GMT

Pope A1

In this interactive session, the OCR Science team will summarise the key lessons from the 2024 summer exam series. We will highlight some of the misconceptions to be overcome at GCSE and A Level. With the aid of candidate exemplars, we will discuss strategies and resources to deal with misconceptions.

Speakers

Amy Brewer

Science Subject Advisor, OCR

Mike Jackson

Subject Advisor for Science, OCR

Sponsors

OCR

We are a leading not-for-profit UK Exam Board. As part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, a department of the University of Cambridge, we have access to unrivalled expertise and research capacity across assessment and examinations.We provide qualifications which engage people... Read More →

Friday January 10, 2025 08:45 - 09:35 GMT
Pope A1

11-19

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type ECTs, Teacher Developers, 11-14, 14-16, Post-16
Twitter feed @OCR_science

12:15 GMT

AQA: Supporting ITT – Understanding GCSE science assessment

Friday January 10, 2025 12:15 - 13:05 GMT

Chemistry LT X2 (with sink)

In this introductory session for ITT’s and ECT’s we discuss what a specification is, and how we assess what’s in it, looking at content, Assessment Objectives, the structure of an AQA GCSE science exam paper, how we apply a mark scheme and some implications for teaching and learning of particular aspects of the assessments.

Speakers

Damian Gent

Curriculum Support Manager, Science, AQA

Damian has recently joined the AQA Science Team as Curriculum Support Manager. With over 20 years teaching experience, he has worked across a wide variety of schools delivering support, school improvement and training. Damian also worked as a Science Consultant as part of the Secondary... Read More →

Sponsors

AQA

Since 1903, we’ve been rewarding achievement by designing and delivering fair and inclusive assessment. We do this because we believe that quality assessment is an essential ingredient for a good education. We’re the most chosen exam board in England and we set and mark the papers... Read More →

Friday January 10, 2025 12:15 - 13:05 GMT
Chemistry LT X2 (with sink)

11-19

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type ECTs, Teacher Developers, 11-14, 14-16, Advisors/Consultants, ITEs, Trainees
Twitter feed @Science_AQA

13:15 GMT

Formative assessment without pencils

Friday January 10, 2025 13:15 - 14:05 GMT

ESLC B05

Improving oracy through the Great Science Share for Schools. Prompts for talk offer ideal ways to formatively assess pupil’s learning in science. Find out more about the GSSfS Toolkit and the many ways in which you can promote discussion between pupils.

Speakers

Grace Marson

SEERIH Specialist Lead, University of Manchester

Frances Hunt

SEERIH Specialist Officer, SEERIH, University of Manchester

Friday January 10, 2025 13:15 - 14:05 GMT
ESLC B05

Primary

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type 7 to 11, ECTs, Global, Teacher Developers, 5 to 7, 11-14
Twitter feed @UoMSEERIH

09:45 GMT

Formative Assessment Probes - Starting Points for Responsive Teaching in KS2

Saturday January 11, 2025 09:45 - 10:35 GMT

ESLC B05

This workshop will share practical ideas about how, when starting a topic, teachers can quickly and easily find out what children already know and what misconceptions they may hold. It will then consider, using examples from classroom practice, how they can be used to plan next steps in teaching.

This session has links to the book Understanding Children's Ideas in Science sold by ASE/Millgate House

Speakers

Ed Walsh

Science Education Consultant, Ed Walsh Consulting

Page Keeley

Retiring President, NSELA

Saturday January 11, 2025 09:45 - 10:35 GMT
ESLC B05

Primary

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type ECTs, Teacher Developers, Global, 7 to 11

11:15 GMT

PLANning for progression in the working scientifically skills

Saturday January 11, 2025 11:15 - 12:05 GMT

ESLC B01

"Leaders' plans to develop pupils’ disciplinary knowledge were usually much less developed than their plans to develop pupils’ substantive knowledge. In general, not enough consideration was given to identifying the disciplinary knowledge, including concepts, that are needed to work scientifically. This limited how effectively leaders could plan a curriculum for pupils to get better at working scientifically over time" - Finding the optimum, Ofsted, February 2023

The PLAN Knowledge Matrices and Examples of Work have successfully supported teachers to plan and confidently assess the substantive knowledge in the National Curriculum in England for Key Stages 1 & 2. In this session, new analogous PLAN resources will be used to demonstrate what working at the expected standard in the working scientifically skills for different year-groups looks like, so teachers can plan appropriate outcomes and make robust assessment judgements.

During the session, the National Curriculum in England working scientifically statements will be broken down so participants understand how different working scientifically skills progress from one phase to the next with examples to illustrate this progression.

Delegates who participate in the session will:

•access resources that will support the teaching and assessment of the working scientifically skills
•understand how the different working scientifically skills progress between phases
•be shown what pupils’ work that meets the expectations looks like for the different working scientifically skills in different phases.

Speakers

Naomi Hiscock

Director, Primary STEM Education Consultancy

Naomi has almost 20 years’ experience as a primary STEM education consultant and is Director of Primary STEM Education Consultancy, one of the most successful specialist primary STEM education consultancies in England. It provides advice to national bodies, local authorities, education partnerships and multi-academy trusts on devising and implementing strategies for primary science and D&T, as well as working... Read More →

Saturday January 11, 2025 11:15 - 12:05 GMT
ESLC B01

Primary

Theme Assessment
Key Stage / Audience Type ECTs, Teacher Developers, 5 to 7, 7 to 11, Trainees, ITEs, Advisors/Consultants
Twitter feed @NaomiHiscock